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Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#441

Post by DantesKite »

roody15 wrote: post #175

This is honesty good news. The best case scenario is a new less deadly highly contagious strain that become the most dominant and spreads worldwide. Way too many comments and articles that try and keep the fear train running full steam. A mild strain of covid that is contagious, leads to natural immunity and doesn’t require a vaccine is an absolute win win for the world.

I think the reality is a lot more complicated than that.

There are many possible paths moving forward and from what I understand, if Omicron continues to mutate, it can take different, possibly more lethal strains.

There's a human tendency to wrap events into a neat story, with a beginning, middle, and end. But viruses are apathetic and ahistoric. They don't care for narrative.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#442

Post by eloff »

roody15 wrote: post #175

This is honesty good news. The best case scenario is a new less deadly highly contagious strain that become the most dominant and spreads worldwide. Way too many comments and articles that try and keep the fear train running full steam. A mild strain of covid that is contagious, leads to natural immunity and doesn’t require a vaccine is an absolute win win for the world.

Agreed. I found out about this early perhaps due to my South African family who sent me this doctors analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2vI4XczqZ8

It could be excellent news. It sounds more virulent than delta, so should displace it given enough time, and much less dangerous.

If this holds up, countries are doing the exact wrong thing by banning travel from South Africa. The thing to do would be to open travel with no restrictions and maybe even subsidize the airfares. The sooner you replace delta with omicron in a country, should this continue to hold up, the better.

I bet not a single country does the logical thing. It's politically infeasible, because it's counterintuitive and the population wouldn't understand or support it. Plus the politicians themselves aren't exactly the sharpest.

But it doesn't matter. Delta swept the world in under six months. Omicron may well do the same if what we're seeing so far about the R value holds up. At this rate it may well just be a matter of time.

The "end" of the pandemic, at least in ways that matter may well be on the horizon.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#443

Post by 015a »

34679 wrote: post #82

Omicron has been found in 38 countries and there are still no deaths caused by it. [1] The media are running with the story that the first death from Omicron just happened in the UK, but read Boris Johnson's quote: "Sadly at least one patient has now been confirmed to have died with Omicron," Johnson told reporters [2] This sounds batshit crazy, because it is, but in the UK, if you die from something unrelated while…

This is an unfortunate reality of this pandemic; the vast majority of deaths, even with Delta and the OG, were among those people with pre-existing conditions, including the most common: obesity and related disorders like type-2 diabetes.

I think Boris' statement is accurate, but you're right; our reaction to it needs to be taken in context. The media and government will talk non-stop about vaccination and treatments, which are incredibly important due to the reality of the pandemic, today. But, mentioning weight, eating healthier, exercising, critically analyzing your own risk factors (with the help of a doctor), etc; out of the question.

I wish I could scream at our leftist leadership right now: Managing fear is wildly important. Every spectrum has extremes. On the extreme right we have vaccine denialists; that's unhealthy. But on the extreme left, we have the opposite [1]; people who are so afraid of this thing they can barely live their daily lives, people who isolate, become depressed, and even kids who are so impacted by at-home learning and impaired social lives they commit suicide. That's blood; the rightwing media and government leaders spill the blood of people who won't get vaccinated, and the leftwing media and government spills the blood of people so caught up in the fear of this thing they neglect their own mental and socioeconomic health.

A (leftist) friend just told me three days ago: "Every other human is a threat."

At this point, we need to heal. Vaccinations, treatments; absolutely. But far more importantly, we gotta put COVID behind us, even if its still here. That responsibility falls on the media and government leaders. Early in the pandemic, we (probably) overplayed the severity of the disease to convince people to isolate; we didn't know how bad it would be, so it was the safer, correct route. Today, I think we need to underplay it. Don't lie; don't obscure. But the fearmongering will destroy our society far faster than COVID does.

[1] https://twitter.com/drewtoothpaste/status/147012370236491367...

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#444

Post by QuarterReptile »

swebs wrote: post #435
QuarterReptile wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is another problem of the modal Western approach. Few people have any knowledge of mitigating strategies or medications because we've moved so aggressively to eradicate discussion of those things.

You seem to be implying that the Eastern approach is better, but the evidence doesn't support that at all.

Sorry, 'Western' was lazy shorthand for 'Western civilization', which covers most places geographically. I meant to exclude from my statement only poorer societies that don't have the luxury of being stupid in their healthcare approach to this disease and time.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#445

Post by DarknessFalls »

roody15 wrote: post #175

This is honesty good news. The best case scenario is a new less deadly highly contagious strain that become the most dominant and spreads worldwide. Way too many comments and articles that try and keep the fear train running full steam. A mild strain of covid that is contagious, leads to natural immunity and doesn’t require a vaccine is an absolute win win for the world.

It's so good in fact, it makes me wonder if this was the Wuhan Virology lab's penance act.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#446

Post by selectodude »

unmole wrote: post #423
selectodude wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen the charts for literally the rest of the world? You're picking an outlier as proof that its not seasonal. Others may say it's the exception that proves the rule.

> Have you seen the charts for literally the rest of the world? I just did. There are no discernable spikes coinciding with cold weather for India, Brazil, the UK or Russia.

I decided to check Brazil really quickly and there's a very steep drop off once summer hit. I don't even need to bother with the UK.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#447

Post by mikeyouse »

defaultprimate wrote: post #421
mikeyouse wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you should really read the comments on the article you linked, as well as they meta-analyses I provided on mask effectiveness when it comes to respiratory illnesses in healthcare and community settings. Unfortunately, Tyler Cowen's blog has worse Covid commentary than even HN does, which is pretty impressive given the amount of HCQ/Ivermectin/bioweapon conspiracy theorizing here. > Surgical masks in medical set…

I literally linked several meta-analyses that show it's patently true.

You should perhaps read the studies you've linked a bit closer? When mentioned (as several of them are explicitly about masks in non-healthcare settings) - they all advocate for universal masking in healthcare settings specifically to limit the spread of Covid...

> Although more research on universal masking in heath settings is needed, it is the expert opinion of the majority (79%) of WHO COVID-19 IPC GDG members that universal masking is advisable in geographic settings where there is known or suspected community or cluster transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

> 1. In areas of known or suspected community or cluster SARS-CoV-2 transmission, universal masking should be advised in all health facilities (see Table 1).

> All health workers, including community health workers and caregivers, should wear a medical mask at all times, for any activity (care of COVID-19 or nonCOVID-19 patients) and in any common area (e.g., cafeteria, staff rooms).

> Other staff, visitors, outpatients and service providers should also wear a mask (medical or non-medical) at all times

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#449

Post by flavius29663 »

chimprich wrote: post #413
BoxOfRain wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Way too many comments and articles that try and keep the fear training running full steam. Enragement is engagement, and how better to enrage people than scaring everyone out of their wits and politicising everything as far as humanly possible? I'm certainly no COVID denier nor vaccine sceptic, though to me it's astonishing how little discussion has happened around the fact that everyone from some randomer's blog to…

The evidence of the past year or two suggests otherwise. For the first few months of 2020, media outlets were constantly downplaying the threat of pandemic. They consistently under-reported the risk. "Should we be worried? No! The threat is remote!" What also sells papers (or attracts eyeballs) is giving people an impression of superiority: "look at all those ridiculous other people panicking!" There's also the gener…

I think it's more of "all of the above". Anything and everything that creates engagement will be published and spread out.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#450

Post by defaultprimate »

mikeyouse wrote: post #447
defaultprimate wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally linked several meta-analyses that show it's patently true.

You should perhaps read the studies you've linked a bit closer? When mentioned (as several of them are explicitly about masks in non-healthcare settings) - they all advocate for universal masking in healthcare settings specifically to limit the spread of Covid... > Although more research on universal masking in heath settings is needed, it is the expert opinion of the majority (79%) of WHO COVID-19 IPC GDG members th…

Opinions not supported by empirical evidence are not opinions worth listening to.

"Experts" supported eugenics, antibacterial soap, breakfast cereal, the food pyramid, lobotomies, and all kinds of other things on the basis of popular "consensus"

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